Tonight, after a brief two game road trip out east that saw the team travel roughly 8,000 km in three days, the Calgary Flames (16-25-6) return home for one game against the Winnipeg Jets (20-23-5) before going out on another two-game road trip. Puck drops at 7 pm MT on Sportsnet West.

In their last game, the Flames lost their eighth game in ten games, going down 4-2 to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night. These stretches are expected from a team penciled in to finish in the bottom 3 at the start of the season.

The Jets, much better than the Flames on paper, haven't been much better than the Flames statistically. They are three games under .500 on the year and are 4-6-0 in their last ten. The problems have been ample for the Jets this year. Ryan Lambert talked about this at great length recently.

For me, the conference move this year might be the biggest issue. Moving from the horrible Southeast division of the subpar Eastern conference to the newly formed Central Division of the Western Conference has really hurt their bid for decency and a playoff appearance.

Rather than facing Florida, Tampa and Carolina multiple times a year, the Jets now find themselves in a conference with Chicago, St. Louis, Colorado and Minnesota. As a result, the Jets currently sit 12th in the West. The Jets, in an attempt to curb part of the storm, rid themselves of head coach Claude Noel and put Paul Maurice in his place late last week. However, regardless of the coaching change, they'll probably still finish no higher than 11th in the West. It's a tough conference.

The Flames and Jets met once already this year, out in Winnipeg. The game was entertaining and was mostly a back and forth affair. The Flames eventually skated away victorious, winning 5-4 in the shootout.

Let's get to the line-ups!

THE LINE-UPS

Via www.dailyfaceoff.com

Hudler - Backlund - Galiardi

Bouma - Stajan - Stempniak

Colborne - Monahan - Byron

Westgarth - Street - McGrattan

Brodie - Giordano

Smid - Butler

Wideman - O'Brien

Berra

Backs is now on a back-to-back-to-back goal scoring streak (I'm going to keep on adding a back to it until he stops his streak). Amazing stuff on his end. Every line he's played with recently has looked the best by a large margin. I'm not sure what got into his coffee but I like it.

Looking at the third line, I'm curious how Baertschi would be doing currently on a no pressure spot on the third line with Monahan and the speedster, Byron. Colborne's been ok but Sven really brought some vision at times and I would like to see him back up in the near future. Although, as I write that I check Sven's stats in Abby and they have been very underwhelming.

Wideman is being deployed on the 3rd pairing with Shane O'Brien currently. That's...well... that's interesting. I figure he'd run a little bit more favorable than Smid and/or Butler but Hartley must see something. Can't wait for Russell to come back, that is for sure.

THE OPPONENTS

Ladd - Little - Frolik

Thorburn - Scheifele - Wheeler

Setoguchi - Jokinen - Byfuglien

Wright - O'Dell - Peluso

Bogosian - Enstrom

Stuart - Trouba

Pardy - Ellerby

Pavelec

That's a different line-up than I was expecting. Evander Kane is out with a hand inury, rumor has it he tried to hold too many stacks of $100 bills this time around and seriously sprained something. Byfuglien is doing the Brent Burns and playing forward rather than defense currently. That third line is an intriguing one to me and I'm curious how it looks.

Pavelec I imagine will get the pipes.

SUM IT UP

Tonight's match-up features the 12th and 13th best teams in the Western Conference. Two teams that are in desperate need of a win. Perhaps the Jets more so as, on paper, they're expected to win more than they do. But this is a Flames blog damn it and the Flames' wins is all we care about. Who cares if those Jets fans want to see their team in the playoffs? It won't happen this year so let's do it Flames. Let's obtain victory.

The two teams combined for eight goals last time out in a good old game of river hockey. Fingers crossed for another one of those beauties.

Byron has a background in psychology, economics and business and is a business researcher/data analyst by day. His love for hockey is as deep as the ocean is wide. Tell him your questions and let him into your heart. Twitter: @Baderader;
Email: byron.bader@gmail.com

I'll be there, cheering the flames on through this rebuild; heck tonight might even be a decent game, there are some sub-plots. New coach for the Jets and an interesting third line with Byf; Backlunds scoring streak and will our sheltered third line be exposed (don't get me started on our fourth line)?

Flames need to lose this one 6-5 in regulation. Monahan will have a 5 point night, assisting on all 5 of Backlund's goals, to balance out his statistical imbalance between goals and assists. A massive fight will then break out, the aftermath of which sees McGrattan, Westgarth, Galiardi, Butler and O'Brien suspended for the next several games, forcing the Flames to call up Reinhart, Corban Knight, Markus Granlund, Tyler Wotherspoon and Mark Cundari or John Ramage to take their places. After the game, Butler will be traded to Safeway for a Bulova watch or Hoover bagless vaccuum cleaner, a deal the grocery chain will soon come to regret.

Klesla back on waivers. Anyone else think that he could 'A' fetch something at the deadline if he's healthy and has a good showing in CGY? Or 'B' be a good candidate for a reclamation project (and cap floor assistance) for a 1 year contract next year this allowing us to move guys like Butler or even Smid for a bigger price?

Back on the ranch in Montana and not able to see any recent Flames games. Life is good! Watching this game on TV tonight, I feel for some hard working guy shelling out $500 a game to watch this. We all know this is a rebuild and that it will take time and patience, but this is painful. Post Oilympic games will be giveaway tickets from season ticket holders.

Random stat, I know circumstances are different with new teammates but Jokinen, Iginla and J-Bo would be 2,3,4 in scoring on current Flames roster with Jokinen and Iggy both tied for team lead with 13 goals.

That's three straight games the Flames have scored two goals. Small victories. At least we ain't the Oilers, with all those talented kids they still can't pass us in the standings. None of those talented forwards can't even play defence, that's pretty pathetic. How hard is it to backcheck, really?